During the past few years, the country has been hit hard by two significant events: the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic death of George Floyd. As a proud African American retired Navy warrant officer, I have wanted to tell my story for several years but kept putting it off. In view of current events, I feel now is the time. We live in a great country, in spite of all its faults. During my lifetime I have encountered racism and seen injustice, but I also have been helped along the way more than I have been hindered. My American story could be anyone’s story.
I was born in October 1937. I have no recollection of the events of December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States subsequently entered World War II. My earliest memories begin in kindergarten in South Philadelphia. I remember milk and graham crackers, naps, and hiding under a table during air raid drills. My father was an air raid warden for our block, and my mother organized war bond parties and victory drives in our neighborhood. One family on our block had a son who joined the Navy. I remember when he came home in his dress whites, and I thought, “Someday I’m going to join the Navy.”
We were a “colored” family of six living in a row house. My parents were loving and kind and taught us to work hard and be good citizens and to love our country. Although Philadelphia was an integrated city, racism existed, but our parents taught us to treat everyone the way we wanted to be treated. They stressed the importance of getting an education and felt learning a trade was the best way to make a good living.
From an early age, I was fascinated by electricity, how radios and, later, television worked. I wanted to be a radio and television repairman. I attended the vocational-technical high school and began to study radio and television repair. As an incentive to get a better grade, our instructor encouraged us to get a ham radio operator’s license, which required students to learn to copy Morse Code, know some Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations, and answer some electronic technical questions. In the meantime, I became interested in the Victory at Sea television series, and my father and I would watch it religiously each week.
I determined that my path to success would be through the Navy, where I could serve my country, travel, and get the advanced electronics training I needed. After graduating from high school in 1955, I enlisted. In boot camp, we took basic battery tests to determine what specialty we would strike for. I did well on the tests but not quite well enough to go to electronics technician school. I did, however, score more than high enough to go to radioman (RM) school, and I aced the Morse Code portion of the test. I was disappointed, but back in those days, RMs were trained to repair their own equipment, so I did receive some electronics repair training during the six months of RM school.
My first duty station was on board the USS Coates (DE-685). When I reported on board I was the junior man in the operations department, and, as such, my sea detail and general quarters stations were as the captain’s 1JV talker. Following the captain around during those evolutions I learned a lot about shiphandling and navigation. I did well on board the Coates and advanced to RM2 by the end of my enlistment.
I reenlisted two months later and received orders to the Naval Communications Unit, Argentia, Newfoundland. We provided communications support to ships and aircraft of the barrier forces, Atlantic, which were the seaward extension of the North American Air Defense (NORAD) Command. While in Newfoundland, I advanced to RM1. Following that tour, I received orders to the staff of Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier, in New York City. I decided to stay in the Navy and found myself back in Newfoundland.
While in Newfoundland I passed the chief petty officer examination and was selected for advancement to RMC. In 1968, I was selected for the warrant officer program. My first duty station as a warrant officer was on board the USS Arlington (AGMR-2). The Arlington was equipped with high-powered, high-frequency (HF) transmitters, which usually were found only at shore communications stations. We also had a satellite communications terminal, which I believe was found on only three other ships.
The Arlington operated in the Gulf of Tonkin providing HF communications support for ships operating off the coast of Vietnam. However, when a communications station was built at Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, the need for the Arlington and her sister ship, the USS Annapolis (AGMR-1), diminished. We were pulled from duty in the Gulf and were part of the recovery force for the Apollo 10 and 11 lunar missions.
Splashdown for the Apollo 10 module was to occur in the South Pacific, and we had to cross the equator to get there. As a “pollywog” I was initiated into the Ancient Order of the Deep. In those days, initiations were harsh, but I proudly became a Trusty Shellback. I still carry my shellback card in my wallet after 51 years. It’s a little ragged and faded, but I never want to have to go through that experience again.
After recovery, we returned to the Gulf but were recalled to the Apollo 11 recovery force about a month later. President Richard Nixon was to greet the astronauts on the primary recovery ship, but he needed to spend the night on the Arlington en route to the splashdown area. We stopped at Guam to receive Secret Service agents and special communications equipment. The agents went over the service records of the entire crew to make sure the President would not be harmed or embarrassed while on board. Sadly, about 50 sailors, mostly African American, were identified and sent to Johnston Atoll.
After that mission, the Arlington was identified for decommissioning. Prior to our departure for the states, we were ordered to provide communications support for President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during the Vietnam peace talks at Midway Island.
I returned to the United States and did a tour as an instructor at the Communications Officer School in Newport, Rhode Island, followed by an assignment at the Pentagon in the Operational Control Telecommunications Center. There I was introduced to mainframe computers and automated naval communications—something that later would determine my civilian career path.
During the tour at the Pentagon, I submitted my third application for appointment as a limited duty officer. I was not selected and was assigned to the USS Inchon (LPH-12). During my tour on board the Inchon, I decided it was time to leave active duty and pursue a civilian career.
My tour at the Pentagon did me well, and I found a job as a civilian contractor for the Navy working in automated communications. After two years, I joined the federal workforce and continued to work in the communications field for the next 22 years. I traveled extensively during my civilian career, helping the Navy upgrade its communications equipment ashore and automate message handling procedures. I retired in 2003 after 45 years of combined military and civilian service.
I have never personally experienced police brutality, but I have certainly seen it inflicted on African Americans disproportionately. I cringed when I first saw African American football players kneel during the National Anthem. As a patriotic American, I felt it was disrespectful. Then I learned why they knelt. They were calling attention to the injustice inflicted on African Americans the best way they could. I recalled the last five words of the “Pledge of Allegiance” I proudly recited every day when I was a child: “and liberty and justice for all.” Those athletes had the courage to stand up (or in this case, kneel) for what they believed and to try and make those last five words a reality. I have faith that this will come to pass.